A moment of silence fell below and Jo eased for ward, moving close enough to the railing that she could see the tops of Sam and Mortimer's heads, but no more. She had no desire to be caught. Jo suspected they would stop talking if they knew she was there.
"So this Nicholas Argeneau," Sam said grimly, "the rogue Nicholas Argeneau... helped save Dani and Stephanie at the beginning of summer and has now, again, risked getting himself caught to save my sister?" Sam asked slowly in what Jo fondly thought of as her sister's lawyer voice. "Does that make any sense to you?"
"No." Mortimer sounded weary, and his hand came into view as he ran his fingers through his hair. "But that's what's happened."
"Why would he do that?" Sam asked, and then, voice serious, said, "Are you sure he's a rogue, Mortimer? A man who'd risk himself to save complete strangers just doesn't sound like a-"
"He's a rogue, Sam," Mortimer interrupted firmly. "And I don't know why he did what he did tonight. Maybe he's trying to make up for the past. Just be glad he did and Jo is safe."
Sam released a little sigh, and her head moved as she nodded. "I should go check on Jo."
"Leave her be, honey," Mortimer said, and Jo eased a little closer to the rail to see him catching Sam's arm as she made for the stairs. "Decker wiped her memory and put it in her head that she's tired and wants to sleep. Leave her be until morning. You might stir some of her memories if you talk to her tonight. They'll be more likely to stay wiped if you leave her until morning."
"Are you sure?" Sam asked, sounding worried.
"So long as she doesn't see Nicholas or Leo's son again, those memories should stay buried," Mortimer assured her. "Now come on. I need to call Lucian and I'd rather not be too far away from you until we're sure Leo's son isn't still prowling the property."
"Is there a possibility he is?" Sam asked with dismay.
"We think he's fled. The gate was open when the men went to search. We think he slipped back through the woods while Nicholas and Jo were kiss ing and slipped out through the gate when Bricker left his post to investigate the noises he heard."
"Nicholas and Jo were kissing?" Sam asked as if Mortimer had said they'd been having sex on a coffee table in the living room in front of the whole party. Jo understood, however; she was a little shocked at this news herself. She'd been kissing some guy she didn't know but who'd saved her from some guy who'd attacked her?
"I'll explain in a minute," Mortimer promised. "I really have to call Lucian. Come on."
"But why were they kissing?" Jo heard Sam ask as Mortimer led her away from the entry and into the library.
Much to Jo's regret, the door closed before Mortimer could answer. She would have liked to have heard that answer herself.
Jo stayed where she was for another moment, her mind spinning a little. Most of what had been said made no sense to her. Decker had wiped her memory and put it in her head that she was tired? She'd been attacked by a rogue, whatever that was, and some fellow named Nicholas, also a rogue, had saved her... apparently risking himself in some way to do so? And she'd been kissing him?
It was the bit about wiping her memory that bothered her most. What did that mean? And how could it have been done? Oddly enough, however, while she wondered about that, Jo was also having strange flashes of memory in her head, just bits of memory that were very disjointed and didn't make a lot of sense. Mostly she just kept seeing the dark-haired man's face.
Raising one hand to her head, Jo closed her eyes as the headache she'd been suffering suddenly increased tenfold. Forcing herself to breathe deeply and not think at all, she waited for the intense pain to ease a bit. It had just reduced to being bearable when she heard the front door of the house open again.
Jo stiffened where she stood as what sounded like a small army stomped into the house. She heard the library door open then and Mortimer asked, "Well?"
"All clear. He definitely got away," someone answered.
"Right. I want two men on the gate in future. We stop all vehicles between the gates and do a thorough search, inside, outside, under, and on top before the vehicles are allowed past the second gate from now on. I don't want this happening again. Understood?"
There were several murmured agreements and then Mortimer sighed. "Nicholas is locked up, but I couldn't reach Lucian. I left a message, but he and Leigh have been traveling a lot since she lost the baby and it could be a couple hours before he gets back to us. So, in the meantime, I want you..."
Jo couldn't hear the rest of what he said. His voice had grown fainter, as if he'd turned back into the library, and the sound of shuffling feet as several people moved out of the entry completely muffled the rest of his words. The men had followed him into the library, she supposed, and peered cautiously down over the railing when the sound of a door closing was followed by complete silence.
Sure enough, the entry was now empty.
Jo stared at the closed library door for several moments, and then began tiptoeing down the stairs. She didn't know what the hell was happening, but suspected the only way she was going to find out was to talk to the man who was locked up. Any other time she would have gone straight down and confronted Mortimer and Sam, but that bit about Decker wiping her memories as well as the strange flashes of memory that had come to her moments ago had combined to make her wary of doing so. And Mortimer had said that as long as she didn't see this man, the memories would stay wiped.
If they really had messed with her mind, Jo wasn't giving them the chance to do so again. She would rather go down and talk to this Nicholas fellow who had risked himself to save her, get those memories back, and keep them. They were hers, dammit, and no one was taking them from her.
Chapter Three
Jo managed to make it out of the house without being spotted. She paused just outside the sliding glass doors to the dining room to peer over the dark yard. She was pretty sure everyone was in the house right now, but considering the events of the evening, it certainly couldn't hurt to be cautious.
Aware that the longer she took, the better the chances were of getting caught, Jo gave up her position by the door and broke into a run, sprinting straight for the back building. She was actually pretty impressed with her speed as she flew across the grass. She'd never been much for athletic pursuits, prefer ring things like rock climbing and diving for physical activity, but her feet were pedaling so fast they seemed to barely touch the ground.
A little sigh of relief slipped from Jo's lips when she reached the door to the building and found it unlocked. She eased it silently open and then slid inside with one nervous glance back at the empty yard. Once she had the door safely closed behind her, Jo paused to get her bearings. She was standing in a small lit hall with glass windows running along either side of her. The windows on her right revealed a large, well-lit garage with several vehicles inside. Every single one of them was an SUV.